Mostly early love, although not universally, for Snap’s $GOOG Glass challenger

Response is mixed, and a little confused, over Snapchat’s — scratch that, Snap Inc.’s — first push into hardware with a late-Friday rollout of its camera-fitted sunglasses called Spectacles.

The new product — long rumored to be a camera of some variety and confirmed in a Wall Street Journal article — integrates a wireless camera shooting a 10-second, 115-degree circular video in any orientation. The glasses then connect directly to the Snapchat app for video sharing via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

With the launch, Snapchat also announced a new identity. It dropped “chat” roughly five years since the creators entered the social media space with the quick-hit messaging and video sharing app’s first incarnation called Picaboo. The firm, which has attracted a wide range of venture capital, was courted by Facebook FB, -1.63% with a failed $ 3 billion offer in 2013.

Social media chimed in well before a product test, in most cases, to offer gut reaction to the look and practicality, with a few posters noting functionality and starting a head-to-head with rival Google GOOG, -0.04% product Google Glass.

Comparisons to Google Glass began.

Commentary also highlighted an active Twitter account at Snapchat that was equally sharing praise and pan.

And some observers applied their lens to what’s changed at the company in the past few years.